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NASA administrator: IV&V ‘critically important’

By KELSIE LeROSE

Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT, W.Va.  — NASA Administrator Charles Bolden came to Fairmont Tuesday to visit NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility, located in the I-79 Technology Park.

Bolden spent 14 years as an astronaut and flew on two missions as a commander and two as a pilot. Those missions included the first Spacelab “mission to planet Earth” to study the atmosphere, deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and the first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission, spending more than 28 days in space, according to his biography.

Bolden also served the country for 34 years in the Marine Corps and retired as a major general.

During the all-hands-on meeting with the facility’s employees, Bolden discussed recent accomplishments and the IV&V program’s continued service to the agency.

“As I was explaining to the workforce, this is my first visit to IV&V, and I feel really bad about having to wait all this time to come up, but I really wanted to help them understand how critically important they are and how important the work is that they do,” Bolden said.

Gregory Blaney, director of NASA’s IV&V program, said the meeting is important for the program.

“The program has been here 20 years, and I think we are now to a place where we have become a federal government and/or NASA institution,” he said. “The value is being recognized all over the country, especially with (Bolden) as our outgoing administrator, (who) has been very supportive of us. Just him coming out, articulating and recognizing the value of the program, I think is important for the people’s morale. It shows that things like that can happen here in West Virginia.”

For six years in a row, NASA has been recognized as the best place to work in the federal government.

“That is because of every one one of them and the work that they do,” Bolden said.

The recognition is based on a survey on how people feel about their workplace, supervisors, etc., Blaney said.

“They categorize agencies by size, and from the category that NASA is in, NASA is one of those agencies that is the best place of work,” he said. “A lot of it is because of the exciting work we do and the attitude that is filtered down through from (Bolden). For six years in a row, this agency is just a fun place to work.”

Other visitors included Goddard Space Flight Center Director Chris Scolese and U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va.

Bolden was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the 12th administrator of NASA in July 2009, according to the event’s press release.

With the end of the Obama administration, a transition will take place as a new administrator will be appointed. McKinley said Bolden is a good leader and will be missed.

“He understands IV&V and the opportunities that can happen here,” he said. “With this transition, we are going to lose him, but the whole mission is to make sure that IV&V stays solid here because it is one of the anchors that has been able to help North Central West Virginia diversify its economy.”

Bolden said he also discussed the upcoming transition period during the meeting. He added that there are some concerns and worries about the transition.

“I think for anybody when you go through a transition, people are just worried about change,” Bolden said. “What’s it going to do to me? How’s my job going to be? Is this going to impact my family? And those are natural concerns. I just wanted the workforce to understand they should not feel bad because they have concerns; that is normal. I would feel bad if I didn’t have a concern.”

Bolden said McKinley told them the same things about the transition, “This is an incredibly diverse, talented area, and we need to tell people who we are at IV&V and try to entice people to come here to allow us to work with them and make their programs part of the facility.”

The IV&V program looks at software and eliminates errors and problems in the software, Blaney said.

“NASA’s IV&V program provides a specialized kind of software assurance to all of NASA, ensuring the most important software on NASA’s highest-profile missions will operate correctly,” the event’s press release added. “The IV&V Program supported the recently launched GOES-R and OSIRIS-REx missions and continues to support more than a dozen NASA missions.”

McKinley said he discussed with Bolden and Scolese the want to expand and grow the IV&V program and NASA to be in more things than just space stations, such as cyber security.

“That is one thing that is affecting all our lives so we are trying to relocatee some of the priorities and move some of the priorities around because IV&V is recognized across this country as being a leader in software development,” he said.

“So what better places in cyber security to find ways to build barriers and firewalls to be able to protect us. I think they are going to emerge as a real leader in this country and perhaps from the developments from what they develop in this facility here in Fairmont that we may use globally to fight this cyber attack happing all across the country.”

Cyber security is ever-moving and dynamic, McKinley said.

“We need to be agile, flexible and nimble to be able to respond back the same way. I have all of the confidence that NASA will be able to lead the charge on that,” he said. “What you have here in this community is incredible. The talent is here all we have to so is keep growing it so we can double or triple their budget over time if they are going to be successful with this.”

Federal agencies including NASA, FBI and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have opened a facility in the I-79 Technology Park.

“As demonstrated with the I-79 Technology Park, West Virginia has enormous potential,” McKinley said in a press release. “NASA and others agencies like the FBI, NOAA and the Department of Energy have led the way, and I’m looking forward to creating new partnerships to bring more opportunities to our area.”

While visiting, Bolden, Scolese and McKinley visited the West Virginia Robotic Technology Center and the NOAA Continuity of Operations Facility.

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